Phoenix Real Estate — Anything and everything about it. Plus random musings… Now with Phoenix area MLS Listings Search!

This week I had the opportunity to work with a great couple from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. We viewed a large number of resale properties and many builder communities (both single family and condos) in Mesa, Chandler, Gilbert, and Gold Canyon. By Thursday morning my clients had narrowed down the search to either a resale in Gold Canyon, or a new build at Seville in Gilbert. We revisited Gold Canyon first then headed off to Gilbert. After almost five full days in the car my clients were physically and mentally exhausted. Enter Megan Smith - a community rep for Shea Homes at La Quintana at Seville in Gilbert.

Megan was excellent! She listened to my clients. She openly answered their questions without pushing for a sale. She took the time to work up a cost sheet including determining upgrade costs. There was no sales pitch. There was no push to upgrade. It made it so much easier for my clients to think about what they really wanted.

We returned to work with Megan at La Quintana on Friday. She patiently answered questions from my clients as well as from me. If she didn’t have the answer she told us she didn’t know but would be able to get the information by email within a few minutes – and she did! My clients are happy and I am happy for them. Megan Smith gets it and I have to believe that Shea Homes gets it too.

Megan was great, and was extremely helpful – by far the best builder’s rep I’ve worked with. If you are looking for a home in La Quintana, you should ask for her. But, as always, you really should ALSO have your own agent representing you if you are purchasing a new-build home!

Thinking about purchasing a Shea new build in the Phoenix area? There is a coupon available for $1000 in upgrades at Shea’s web site. It’s a little tricky to find (I can’t link to it directly). Go to this page, and click on this icon:

You must complete the information (including your accurate email address) to obtain the coupon.

Realtors: You can obtain a Realtor coupon by registering for the Shea Realtor Network.

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Wowsa. It’s been a pretty brutal day for economic news:

Foreclosures Hit Record High

“Hysteria” Drives Oil to Record High

Unemployment Up Sharply Nationwide (held its own in Arizona by the way)

As such, the stock market took a pounding today, with the Dow losing 395 points (All the broad market indexes were down about 3% today).

I’m a bit of a news junkie. As I was reading through report after report of today’s economic news I did manage to come across one gem of an article.

No, it’s not good news — not by any stretch of the imagination. But it’s got important information related to home foreclosures, which have hit Arizona particularly hard (per RealtyTrac, Arizona ranked 3^rd in the nation in foreclosure activity in April, up from 4th in March).

CNN Money published this article yesterday, “The Trick to Getting A Mortgage Fixed”. 

The title is misleading — there is no trick. It takes a lot of work, sacrifice, and some luck. And the fact is, not all loans can be adjusted or modified no matter what you do or who you talk to.

Misleading title aside, there is some great information in this article. It can help educate you in the loan modification process from the lenders and mortgage investors perspective and provides helpful tips and suggestions.

With so many folks facing foreclosure, we’re going to try to run some articles on how to  reduce the risk of foreclosure. We provided some resources and phone numbers for free housing counseling earlier in the week, and will continue to post other items as we come across them and time permits.

Remember, the most important thing you can do if you start getting in trouble with your mortgage payments is talk to your lender. The sooner the better. Don’t ignore it, and don’t be ashamed to reach out for help. Lots of people are in this situation.  

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Dustin is hosting another live podcast / roundtable today at 4:00pm PST.

The last one was on the NAR/DOJ settlement and was fantastic.

This week’s topic is on “Getting Value out of Social Networks”. I’ll be on, as will others to be announced shortly. ALL can participate by listening and via live chat.

Details are on 4Realz.

UPDATE: Participating on the call was a blast. Good info! Here is the podcast in it’s entirety (it’s 50 minutes long…)

 

 Social Networking Round Table [50:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Jeff Turner (aka ResPres, aka the “other” JT) of the fabulous Real Estate Shows (blog) is hosting a social meetup in Scottsdale on Friday, June 6 at 7:00pm.  

If you’ve been involved in real estate social media for more than say, oh five minutes, you’ve probably seen Jeff’s presence. The man is everywhere.

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Jeff in person. He’s a great guy.

Details of the event can be found here at Yahoo Upcoming.

You must RSVP through Upcoming. Real Estate Shows is buying, so he needs an accurate count!

Signed,

The original JT (I’m older than him by a year, hence I was JT before he was JT).

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